So the officer brought the young man to the chief captain, and said to him, "Paul, the prisoner, called me to him, and asked me to bring this young man to you, for he has something to say to you."
Then the chief captain took the young man aside, and asked him, "What is it that you have to say to me?"
And he said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the council again; but do not let him go, for there are more than forty men watching for him, who have sworn an oath together that they will neither eat nor drink until they have killed Paul."
The chief captain listened carefully, and then sent the young man away, after saying to him, "Do not tell any one that you have spoken of these things to me."
And after the young man had gone the chief captain called to him two centurions, captains over a hundred men, and he said to them, "Make ready two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, and seventy men on horseback, and two hundred men with spears, at nine o'clock at night."
And he told them also to have ready horses for Paul, so that he might send him safe to Felix, the governor of the land, at Caesarea. And he wrote a letter in this manner:
"Claudius Lysias sends greetings to the most noble governor Felix. This man was seized by the Jews, and would have been killed by them, but I came upon him with the soldiers, and took him from their hands, having learned that he was a citizen of Rome. And to find out the reasons why they were so strongly against him, I brought him down to their council. But I found that the charges against him were about questions of their law, but nothing deserving death or bonds. When I heard that there was a plot to kill the man, I sent him at once to you, and told his enemies to go before you with their charges."
So in the night almost five hundred men were sent with a guard for Paul. He was brought out of the castle, and taken that night as far as to Antripatris, about forty miles. On the next day the soldiers left him, thinking him to be no longer in danger, and returned to Jerusalem, while the horsemen rode on with him to Caesarea, where the governor Felix lived. The officer in charge gave the letter to the governor. He read the letter, and then asked Paul from what land he had come. Paul told him that he belonged to the land of Cilicia in Asia Minor. And Felix said, "I will hear your case when those who bring charges against you have come."
And he sent Paul to be kept in a castle which had once belonged to Herod. After five days the high-priest Ananias and some others came to Caesarea, bringing with them a lawyer named Tertullus. And when Paul was brought before them in presence of Felix, the governor, Tertullus made a speech charging him with riot and lawbreaking, and many evil deeds. They said also that he was "a ring-leader in the party of the Nazarenes," which was the name they gave to the Church of Christ. And the Jews all joined in the charge, saying that all these things were true. After they had spoken, the governor motioned with his hand toward Paul, showing that he might speak, and Paul began, "I know that you have been for many years a judge over this people, and for that reason I speak to you willingly. For you may know that it is only twelve days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem. Nor was I quarreling with any one in the Temple nor stirring up a crowd in the Temple, or the synagogues, or in the city. Nor can they prove to you the things that they have said against me.
A HEATHEN TEMPLE
"But I do own to this, that after the way which they call 'the party of the Nazarenes,' so do I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things in the law and in the prophets, and having a hope in God that the dead shall be raised up. And I have always tried to keep my heart free from wrong toward God and toward men.
"Now after many years, I came to bring gifts to my people, and offerings for the alter. And with these they found me in the Temple, but not with a crowd, nor with a riot. But there were certain Jews from Asia Minor who ought to have been here, if they have anything against me."
Felix knew somewhat about the Church of Christ, and he said "When Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I will settle this case."
And he ordered Paul to be kept under guard, but that his friends might freely come to see him. After a few days Felix and his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, sent for Paul, and heard from him with regard to the gospel of Christ. And as Paul preached to him, of right living, and of ruling one's self, and of the judgment of God that should come upon sinners, Felix was alarmed, and said, "Go away for this time; when a fit time comes, and I am ready to listen, I will send for you."
Felix was not a just judge, for he hoped that Paul might give him money, so that he might set Paul free; and with this in his mind he sent for Paul, and talked with him many times. Two whole years passed away, and Paul was still in prison at Caesarea. At the end of that time Felix was called back to Rome and a man names Porcius Festus was sent as governor in his place. Felix wished to please the Jews, and he left Paul a prisoner.
The Story That Paul Told to the King
Acts xxv: 1, to xxvi: 32.
When Festus came to rule over the land of Judea, in the place of Felix, who had kept Paul in prison so long, he went up to Jerusalem to visit that city. There the chief priests and the leading men spoke to him against Paul, and they asked that he might be sent to Jerusalem to be tried. It was their plan to kill Paul on the way. But Festus told them that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would soon go there.
"Let some of your leaders go down with me," said Festus, "and bring your charges against him, if you have any."
When Festus came down to Caesarea he called them all together, and sat upon the judge's seat, and commanded Paul to be brought. Then the Jews said evil things about Paul, declaring that he had done wickedly. But they could not prove any of the things which they spoke against him. And Paul said, "I have done no wrong against the law of the Jews, nor against the Temple, nor against the rule of Caesar th emperor."
Festus wished to please the Jews, for he did not know their secret purpose to kill Paul. He said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried upon these charges before me?'
But Paul said, "I am standing before the Roman court where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as thou knowest very well, and no man shall give me into their hands. I ask for a trial before Caesar, the emperor at Rome."
It was the law throughout the Roman lands that any citizen of Rome, as Paul was, could ask to be tried at Rome before Caesar, the emperor. When Festus heard Paul's words, he said, "Do you ask to be tried before Caesar? Then unto Caesar you shall go."
So Paul was taken back to the prison at Caesarea to be sent to Rome when his time should come. A few days after this a Jewish ruler named Agrippa, with his sister Bernice, came to visit Festus. He was called "King Agrippa" and he ruled over a part of the land on the east of the river Jordan. While Agrippa and Bernice were at Caesarea, Festus said to them, "There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, of whom the chief priests and elders of the Jews asked, when I was at Jerusalem, that I should give orders to have him put to death, or give him into their hands. I told them that the Romans never give judgment against any man until he stands face to face before his enemies, and can make answer to their charges. When they came down to this place, and the man was brought before them, their charges were not the wicked acts that I expected to hear of; but they had some questions about their ways of worship, and about somebody names Jesus, who was dead, but who Paul said was alive. As I could not understand these questions, I asked Paul whether he would go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried. But Paul asked for a trial before Caesar, and I am keeping him to be sent to the emperor at Rome."